Get Back on Track with these 118 Quotes About Procrastination

Last modified: June 19, 2018

Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. The word derives from the Latin verb “procrastinare”, which translates into: the prefix pro-, ‘forward’, and the suffix -crastinus, ’till next day’ from cras, ‘tomorrow’. Procrastination can take hold on any aspect of life and it can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression, and self-doubt. The truth is that everyone procrastinates: putting things off is part of being human. It is critical to examine the consequences of procrastination, both external and internal, in order to evaluate whether it is a problem in one’s life. More often than not, procrastination is indeed a problem for many.

According to new research from Joseph Ferrari at DePaul University shows that procrastination is more complicated than most people think. People tend to think of procrastination as coming from poor time management or laziness, but Ferrari’s research shows that procrastination stems from negative emotions that hijack one’s mood. People usually put things off because they aren’t in the right mood to complete the task and this sets off the procrastination doom loop. Not being in the right mood to work, people distract themselves with other tasks and then they feel guilty for having wasted so much time. This only worsens one’s mood, and as the deadline draws closer, people feel worse than they did when they first put off the task. In order to escape the Doom Loop of procrastination one must take control of their mood. Ferrari suggests to figure out why we procrastinate, remove the obstacles that get in our way and finally jump right in the task at hand. The remedy for procrastination is action and hopefully the following quotes will inspire and motivate you

Short Quotes About Procrastination

Stop talking. Start walking.M. Heroux

You may delay, but time will not. Benjamin Franklin

Don’t procrastinate, start building yourself now! Sunday Adelaja

One of these days, is none of these days. Proverb

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. Victor Kiam

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married

What is deferred is not avoided. Thomas More

Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing! Donald Gardner

Delay not to seize the hour! Aeschylus

Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. Steven Wright

My biggest regret could be summed up in one word, and that’s procrastination. Ron Cooper

One of these days is none of these days.

The penalty for procrastination is the loss of hopes and dreams. Tai Lopez

Procrastination is the foundation of all disasters. Pandora Poikilos

Begin to weave and God will give you the thread. German Proverb

Motivational Quotes About Procrastination

Begin doing what you want to do now. Marie Beynon Ray

Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today. Benjamin Franklin

A year from now you may wish you had started today. Karen Lamb

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Abraham Lincoln

Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing. William Arthur Ward

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. Napoleon Hill

Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well. Mark Twain

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson

Following-through is the only thing that separates dreamers from people that accomplish great things. Gene Hayden

Sometimes the thing you dread doing is the very thing you should do, just so you can stop thinking about it. Marci Shimoff, Chicken Soup for the Single’s Soul

Begin things today so that they can finish tomorrow. Moonish Sood

Don’t let procrastination take over your life. Be brave and take risks. Your life is happening right now. Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Whatever you are waiting for won’t come to you; you have to go for it. Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders’ Frontpage

Ensure you have done each day’s portion of the heavy responsibilities resting on you. Never delay your success! Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders’ Frontpage

To succeed in the new year, you have to set your priority right, pursue your goals with zeal and do away with procrastination. Bamigboye Olurotimi

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Funny Quotes About Procrastination

Procrastinate now, don’t put it off. Ellen DeGeneres

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done. Rita Mae Brown

Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well. Mark Twain

Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill. Christopher Parker

One can hardly do anything productive when one knows there is cake in the fridge. Joyce Rachelle

Because I was in a bind with my BBC story, I devoted most of my day to defrosting the freezer. David Sedaris, Theft by Finding

Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him. Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after. Oscar Wilde

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. Napoleon Hill

I’m a big believer in putting things off, In fact, I even put off procrastinating. Lisa Kleypas, Smooth Talking Stranger

I must catch up on procrastination. Brian Spellman

If you ask me, reincarnation is just another way to procrastinate. Chuck Palahniuk

I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness. Denzel Washington

A procrastinators willpower lies in the fact that he keeps work pending because he strongly feels he wants to do the same – keep it pending. Amit Abraham

For me, most of the anxiety and difficulty of writing takes place in the act of not writing. It’s the procrastination, the thinking about writing that’s difficult. Adam Mansbach

Intellectual Quotes About Procrastination

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. Scott Peck

Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. Denis Waitley

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination. Augustine of Hippo

Hesitation is often like procrastination. One may have vague doubts and feel a need to mull things over; meanwhile, other issues intrude on thought, and no decision is taken. Ask people why they procrastinate, and you probably won’t get a crisp answer. Robert J. Shiller

One of the great challenges of our age, in which the tools of our productivity are also the tools of our leisure, is to figure out how to make more useful those moments of procrastination when we’re idling in front of our computer screens. Joshua Foer

Academics, who work for long periods in a self-directed fashion, may be especially prone to putting things off: surveys suggest that the vast majority of college students procrastinate, and articles in the literature of procrastination often allude to the author’s own problems with finishing the piece. James Surowiecki

The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic toll the habit takes on people. This is the perplexing thing about procrastination: although it seems to involve avoiding unpleasant tasks, indulging in it generally doesn’t make people happy. James Surowiecki

I, for one, find writing excruciating. Some mornings, as I’m on my way to my desk, my hands actually tremble with fear. The fear, of course, is that I’ll sit down at the desk and discover that what I’ve written is claptrap. Fear inevitably leads to procrastination. Rosemary Mahoney

Procrastination usually results in sorrowful regret. Today’s duties put off until tomorrow give us a double burden to bear; the best way is to do them in their proper time. Ida Scott Taylor

The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it is one of the greatest burglars of joy. Be deliberate, but once you’ve made up your mind -jump in. Charles R. Swindoll

We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Poetic Quotes About Procrastination

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. Don Marquis

Success is not obtained overnight. It comes in installments; you get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow until the whole package is given out. The day you procrastinate, you lose that day’s success. Israelmore Ayivor

When there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it smaller. Author Unknown

If and When were planted, and Nothing grew. Proverb

He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life. Victor Hugo

My life is a monument to procrastination, to the art of putting things off until later, or much later, or possibly never. Craig Brown

Getting an idea should be like sitting on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something. L. Simpson

You can dance in the storm. Don’t wait for the rain to be over before because it might take too long. You can can do it now. Wherever you are, right now, you can start, right now; this very moment. Israelmore Ayivor

If you want to be certain, you should never get married. You should never change jobs. In fact, you might as well just stay home. Because I don’t know anybody who is certain. That need to be certain is just procrastination. Mark Burnett

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind. Author Unknown

A good procrastination should feel like you’re inserting lots and lots of commas into the sentence of your life. Ze Frank

Dream big as you can and shoot for the stars, but get started even if its small baby steps, they count! Lucas D. Shallua

Your ideas have legs and just as they run through your head, they could be running through someone else’s head and it’s just a matter of who gets to the finish line first. Nothing is new under the sun so act on your ideas. Sanjo Jendayi

The distance between your Dreams and Reality is inversely proportional to your Efforts. Vineet Raj Kapoor

How easy it is to slip.
How hard it is to climb.
How wise it is to keep in step
And never fall behind.
Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons